Essential tools for starting riveting at home

Start with the riveter itself

For most home jobs you want a hand riveter that takes standard blind rivets in 3.2mm (1/8in), 4mm and 4.8mm (3/16in) diameters. Buy one with a metal body and four interchangeable noses rather than the cheapest plastic-handled type, because a sloppy riveter pulls at an angle and leaves you with a bent mandrel and a loose joint. Expect to pay a modest amount for something that will last years.

If your work involves hundreds of rivets — a trailer floor, a boat trailer rebuild, a shed frame — a lazy tong riveter is worth the extra. It uses a concertina action so you squeeze in a natural motion instead of fighting a lever with one hand while the other hand wobbles. It is longer and awkward in tight corners, so most people keep both.

For 4.8mm stainless rivets, and for anything structural, a heavy-duty or air riveter becomes sensible. A cheap hand tool simply will not pull stainless reliably, and forcing it damages the tool.

Drill bits, sizes and hole preparation

Blind rivets are sized by the hole they sit in, not the rivet body diameter you can see. A 4mm rivet wants a 4.1mm hole — check the supplier's chart, because tolerances vary between aluminium and stainless. Too tight and you cannot insert the rivet; too loose and it will not clamp properly.

• HSS jobber bits in 3.2mm, 4.1mm, 4.8mm and 5.1mm cover the vast majority of jobs. Buy them individually or in a small set, and accept that you will snap a few.
• Cobalt bits for stainless and for drilling out old rivets, which is a frequent task and hard on tooling.
• A stepped or cone drill bit for enlarging holes in thin sheet without grabbing.
• A centre punch so the bit starts where you want it. On curved panels this matters enormously.
• A deburring tool or a larger drill bit to chamfer the hole edges. Burrs stop panels sitting flush and are a classic cause of a leaking repair.

Keep drill speed low on metal, use a drop of cutting oil, and let the bit cut rather than spin. Almost all disappointing riveting starts with a ragged hole.

Clamps, clecos and holding the work still

You cannot rivet a joint that moves. Before you pull a single rivet, the two pieces need to be aligned and held tight against each other, otherwise a gap opens up that the rivet cannot close.

• Cleco fasteners and a set of spring pliers are the professional answer. They slot into a drilled hole and hold the panels together while you work along the seam, then come out one at a time as rivets go in.
• G-clamps and welding clamps for heavier sections and for holding a workpiece to the bench.
• Spring clamps and small trigger clamps for light sheet and for awkward edges.
• A pair of self-locking pliers for pulling stubborn edges into line.

Even a modest set of clecos in two sizes will transform the quality of your work. If you buy nothing else beyond the basics, buy these.

Choosing rivets and the consumables to keep in stock

Rivets come in aluminium, steel, stainless steel and monel, in sealed and open varieties, and in dome, countersunk and large-flange heads. Plain aluminium is fine for light non-structural work and is the easiest to pull. Steel is stronger and cheaper than stainless. Stainless resists corrosion but is harder to pull and harder to drill out later.

Match the rivet to the material where you can. Aluminium rivets in aluminium sheet avoid a corrosion cell forming in damp conditions, which matters for vehicles, trailers and anything living outdoors. Use sealed rivets wherever water might sit, such as a wheel arch or roof repair, and large-flange or backing washers on thin or brittle material to stop the head pulling through.

Grip range is the other thing people get wrong. A rivet is designed to clamp a specific thickness range, printed on the box. Pick one that covers your joint thickness.

Safety kit and the small extras that save a job

Riveting sends small, sharp, fast-moving objects in several directions. The mandrel snaps off and flies; drilling produces spirals of swarf that are excellent at finding the soft part of a hand. Safety glasses are non-negotiable, and a face shield is better for overhead work. Thin nitrile or cut-resistant gloves help with sheet edges and swarf, though take them off when you need fingertip feel.

A few extras earn their bench space:

• A magnetic tray for rivets, mandrels and drill bits, so you are not crawling around on the floor mid-job.
• A rivet removal tool or a sharp 4mm punch for drilling out the head of a rivet that has to come out.
• A short length of brass or aluminium bar as a backing dolly for solid riveting and for supporting thin sheet while you work.
• A vacuum or a stiff brush to clear swarf before you assemble anything. Leftover swarf trapped between panels rattles and accelerates corrosion.
• A scrap offcut of the same material to practise on. Ten minutes of test pulls teaches you more than any instruction sheet.

Build the kit in that order — riveter, correct drill bits, clecos, sensible rivets, then safety and the small aids — and you will be able to tackle real repairs rather than just tidy jobs. Everything else you can add as a specific project demands it.